[Disclaimer] All things Twilight belong to Mrs. Stephenie Meyer

[A/N] Hello my lovely readers out there. Another update of my little Twilight soap opera aka fan fiction.

This one is dedicate to SOFisticated1 and Jexy. Hope you'll enjoy.

*Warning; the end of this chapter is a little bit corny (or a little bit more) don't read if it offends you.*

**Chapter 55**

"Mommy, why are you crying?"

I raised my head and gasped for air, desperately trying to fight back new tears. It didn't work. The tension that had left my body just minutes ago, when Edward finally scrawled his name under the divorce papers, had turned into something that I had no name for. My hands trembled so much that the picture that I still had been holding in my left hand fell down on the ground.

It was over. I was free. I was really free now.

"Mommy?"

I wrapped my arms around my daughter and sobbed against her tiny shoulder.

"Let her go, you're going to break her back and how would that look like to the judge?" Zafrina stated, putting a warm hand on my shoulder.

I dropped my arms and sniffed while I searched for a tissue in my handbag.

"I'm sorry. It's just…I'm just so…so…,"

"The word is relieved, Bella." Jasmine stated, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"Leave her alone, Jazz." Ali snarled at her before she kneeled down in front of me.

Gently she cupped my face between her dainty hands and wiped away a bit of the salty wetness on my cheeks.

"Are you okay, honey?" she asked me worriedly and I nodded my head, unable to bring out reasonable words.

Ali pulled me closer and started rocking me back and forth until the trembling in my body finally subsided.

"Zafrina, is my mommy sick?"

"No, sweetie, she's not sick. But maybe she could need a little bit of alone time with your aunt right now. You can come with me; I'll show you my bike."

"You should go with them." Ali stated when she realized that Jasmine was still standing next to us.

"Are you sure that you don't need help with her? She looks as if she's about to break down any minute."

"Maybe she just needs some fresh air? I guess everything was just too much for her."

She planted a kiss on my forehead and sighed deeply. Slowly I stood up from the chair again, hoping that I wouldn't accidentally collapse on the ground now. That would be too embarrassing.

Ali's hand never left mine until we were outside the building. Then she pulled me towards a wooden bench at its left side.

I sat down on it and put my head between my knees to fight the dizziness.

"Come here," she mumbled so low that I could barely hear her speak at all.

I rested my head in her lap while she started stroking my face with feather light touches.

"I love you so much."

"I love you more," I mumbled against her lips when she leaned down to kiss me.

"Doubt that's possible…,"

Her mouth was warm against mine and it tasted sweet when I nudged the tip of my tongue between her parted lips.

"Did everything go okay?" she asked me, when she finally pulled back from the kiss.

"The judge was an arrogant ass. He didn't seem to like the fact that we're together. He said that…"

"Shhh," she put one finger on my lips to silence me.

"It doesn't matter what he thinks about our relationship. You and I, we know that we belong together that's all that counts."

"You're right, Ali, but it still hurt me to have someone talk about me...about us like that."

"I know, Bella."

I sighed deeply and closed my eyes for a moment. When I opened them again I blinked into the warm, caramel of hers. God, how much I loved her eyes.

"Somehow I can't believe it's over now."

"It doesn't feel to me as if it's over. Edward was…angry at me. You should have seen his face when he had to sign the damn divorce papers."

"I'm so sorry about that. He didn't threaten you again, did he?"

I shook my head.

"Zafrina told me that I don't need to be afraid. The judge made it pretty clear that he gets in serious trouble if he dares to break the restraining order again."

"But you're still afraid of him, no matter what Zafrina or the judge told you."

I nodded my head and wondered when the feeling of being finally free from my husband would manage to overlap my fears.

XXXX

"Ali, you know that I don't really like surprises. Why won't you tell me where we're going?"

She took my hand in mine to squeeze it gently. Then she started rubbing small circles all over my wrist, making the blood underneath the thin layer of skin pulsate against her dainty fingertips.

"The key point in surprising someone is not to tell the person where you're going."

"But I want to know. I promise to still act surprised when we're there."

A crystal chuckle left her throat.

"No chance, honey. But you're lucky. We're there now."

The wheels squeaked on the asphalt when she parked the car in front of a ….hotel?

"What are we going to do in a hotel?"

If she just wanted to do that with me –not that I would mind – we could have just stayed at home after Rosalie picked Lilly up to babysit her.

"We're not going to spend the whole night in the hotel room," she told me as we stepped out of the car.

She hugged me tightly from behind and pulled my hair over my shoulder to plant a kiss on the exposed skin of my neck.

"Come with me."

The first thing I recognized when we stepped inside the lobby was the huge amount of women, or at least I thought that all of them were women. It wasn't really that easy to tell for some of them.

"It's a ball." She explained while she pulled me towards the hall.

"We're going to a ball? You mean like dancing?" my voice raised two octaves. The last ball I had been forced to attend was prom and it hadn't been a very pleasant experience. Mike had drunk too much of the spiked punch and I had spent half of the night with him in the ER…

"Hello? Earth to Bella?"

"Hmm?"

"Stop worrying. This is going to be fun."

"Honey, you know that I suck at dancing. I don't want to embarrass you."

She cupped my face between her hands and kissed my mouth so lightly that her lips were barely touching mine.

I wrapped my arms around her delicate waist and pulled her closer while the tip of her tongue slipped into my mouth. Tenderly she nudged it against my tongue, sending a pleasantly tingly feeling down my spine.

Maybe spending the entire night in the hotel room wasn't such a bad idea after all?

"Don't try to seduce me," she whispered into my ear as I started stroking over her bare shoulder with my fingertips.

"Me…seducing you? As if such a thing was possible. You're the temptress who makes my heart always beat too fast."

"Sorry about that," she mumbled, running her thumb down my jaw. Somehow this small gesture managed to set my skin on fire.

"Don't have to be. I kind of like the way you make me feel."

"Kind of…"

"Kind of…"

I lowered my head and kissed her gorgeous mouth again. Her lipstick was probably smeared all over my lips now but that didn't bother me. I sucked her velvety upper lip between my teeth to nibble on it.

"Ali! Bella! You made it."

Slowly I turned around to greet Maria who had her glove covered hand on the shoulder of a woman whose hair was so short cropped that you could see the scalp under the dark stubbles. The blue tie she was wearing matched exactly the color of her eyes.

"Oh Bella, you look so pretty tonight. Doesn't she, Charlotte?"

She nodded her head.

"The dress is lovely. Do you want to dance?"

"With you?" God, Bella, stop sounding like a complete idiot. At least I had put enough makeup on to cover my blush.

She chuckled slightly.

"Of course with me," she stated, clicking her tongue.

"Or doesn't your girlfriend here allow you to dance with other women."

I wrapped my arm around Ali's waist and pulled her closer.

"She's my fiancée, not my girlfriend and she doesn't allow or forbid me to do anything."

"So, do you want to dance now? Trust me, I'm such an awesome dancer, it'll be like flying."

"Charlotte, can't you see that you're embarrassing her? Leave her alone. You're impossible with your lame attempts to flirt with every woman in this room."

A low chuckle left her throat and then she turned to Maria again.

"It's so cute when you get jealous. It kind of turns me on, when you get so bitchy, Maria."

"We give the two of you some privacy now." Ali mumbled and pulled me over to the bar where she ordered white wine for us.

"I'm sorry about that, Bella." she whispered, before she planted a soft kiss on the sensitive skin right beneath my earlobe.

I sipped at the wine, enjoying the warmth that spread through my body as her fingertips brushed over my neck down to my cleavage.

"You don't have to be sorry, Ali. It's not your fault."

Then I took another gulp of the wine and sighed deeply.

"Do you want to dance with me?"

"Don't you hate dancing?"

"Yeah, I do. But my lovely fiancée here kind of likes it."

"Kind of…"

Slowly I leaned over and kissed her mouth, letting the tip of my tongue caress her lips until she parted them a little. Her tongue swirled around mine, making me feel so dizzy as if I had just had an entire bottle of wine and not just half a glass.

"I love you, Bella. So much it hurts."

I took her hand in mine and planted kisses all over her knuckles.

"Before I met you, I didn't even know what love was. It was just something that I read about in corny novels when I was a young girl. And when my marriage went all wrong and I was so unhappy, I always asked myself why I had to endure this. What was the point in marrying someone who didn't really care about you?"

"Bella, we don't have to talk about that right now."

"Yes we have." I whispered into her ear, my voice so low that it was barely audible.

"But now I know why I did it. No, not really why I did it, but why it had to happen in the first place. Everything that happened to me in my life was necessary to bring me to you…or to bring you to me. I love you more than I ever thought that I could love another being. You make me feel like…I don't think that I have words that are good enough for it."

Then I cleared my throat nervously before I continued.

"I know that you've already asked me this question and I said yes but I really want to...ask you too."

"Ask me what?"

"Mary Alice Cullen, will you marry me?"

"Oh that…,"

Slowly she leaned closer and wrapped her arms around my neck, twisting a wisp of my hair around her fingers before she put it behind my ear.

"Of course I marry you. I would marry you tonight, if it were possible."

I pulled her closer, feeling the spikey ends of her hair brushing against my cheek. She smelled incredibly good, like vanilla and sweet apples and most of all she smelled like my Ali and nothing else.

Somehow it was as if I had come home at last.

XOXXOXOXOXO

[A/N] Hope all of you will have a nice weekend. This is going to be the last update in the next days, since I have to spend some quality time with my homophobic family (oh the joy). Press the review button down there. I have the feeling that I really need some love and encouragement.